Getting Started
GUIDE: Starting a new modpack can be a daunting new experience, but with a little bit of know how you can start to do amazing things. This article will give you the basics to get started in order to maximize your starting income. Starting tip(For IndustrialCraft3): Do not remove machines with pickaxes; you will need to use a wrench, or it will drop a machine block. However, machines can sometimes drop machine blocks even with the wrench, therefore it is recommended to not move them unless necessary until you get the electric wrench. Early on, things are much the same as normal Minecraft play; nothing important will actually change until you have progressed to an iron pickaxe . Getting one should be your first priority after you have secured shelter and food. It is invaluable in your first mining expedition because of redstone, which you will need for many different machines and other things added by mods. Aim to acquire: * Coal (at least one vein, but don't get greedy early on) * Wood (oak, birch, etc. Just enough for chests or barrels) ** Charcoal (optional, safer to get than coal in most cases) * Iron Ore (8+) ** Iron Pickaxe Before you go for any large amount of mining, it is a good idea to create an iron furnace, which is crafted with a furnace in the middle bottom crafting spot, with a "hut" of iron ingots above it (1 iron top middle, 4 iron in two vertical columns in the bottom two spots on each side). Iron Furnaces burn 10 items per coal/charcoal, which allows you to save more coal or charcoal for essential torches (a creeper could turn your machine into a machine block just as easy as your pickaxe) and generator fuel. To maximize efficiency, only smelt the first eight iron ore in a regular furnace with one piece of coal or charcoal, then immediately break it and use five of the iron to craft the iron furnace. You should also store up any extra iron ores and other ores for now in chests or barrels, because you will soon have access to a machine that can double your ingot production (the macerator). Generator ''' This stage requires a significant resource investment. It is strongly advised that you read the entire section before you attempt it. First you must gather something you will need a lot of for a long time. Aim to acquire: * Treetap ** Sticky Resin (9+) *** Rubber Rubber is an essential material for Industrial Craft machines. You will probably need to go quite far to find it, so it is recommended that you establish an easy way to find your base again or relocate to the area you find rubber in; you can open Rei's minimap with the "C" key (Or whatever you made the Waypoint button on the keyboard) to leave a waypoint anywhere you want to be able to find again (such as your current base). You need to find rubber trees, which are found in small clusters in swamp biomes. You need to look for a dark tree with a line of leaves sticking straight up from the top. To harvest the rubber, you will need a treetap, which is made with five wooden planks: one in the top middle, a full middle row, and one in the bottom left. Right click, with the treetap, on yellow spots on the rubber tree log to make sticky resin come out. You can right click again to try to get extra resin, but it has a chance of permanently removing that resin spot, which would otherwise replenish its resin. Since you will need a lot of rubber, it is strongly recommended to chop down the rubber trees. Rubber tree logs have a chance to drop resin when chopped, and you can bring back saplings to start a rubber tree farm closer to your base. Smelt 9 or 10 sticky resin in your iron furnace to produce rubber. Rubber may not seem important now, but it will be required soon. it's time to get started on serious mining to finally jumpstart electricity. Aim to acquire: *Iron Ore (17+) **Refined Iron (12) ***Generator *Redstone (10+) **RE battery ***Generator * Copper Ore (6+) ** Copper insulated cable *** RE battery **** Generator * Tin Ore (4+, 10+ recommended) ** RE battery *** Generator Now that you have acquired rubber, it is time for some mining to get the other materials needed to start with machines. You will need some redstone . 10 pieces or more. While you hunt for redstone, you should be on the lookout for an orange colored ore (copper), which may only be in layers 40-70 in certain ore generation setups, and a greyish-white ore (tin). These two ores are very important to beginning with the more powerful machine-based mods. You need at least 10 redstone, 6 copper ore, 4 tin ore, and 17 iron ore before you leave the mine or cave . Coal is strongly recommended. You now have all of the ore you need to start with Industrial Craft beyond just the iron furnace. Although it is possible to start with any mod, Industrial Craft is by far the most useful at this stage. Remember that you do not want you smelt more ore blocks than absolutely necessary until you have a macerator, because it doubles ingot yields from most ores. Smelt 17 iron, 6 copper, and 4 tin . After the iron is smelted, smelt 12 of the ingots again to make 12 refined iron. You now need an RE battery. To make this, you first need at least one piece of copper insulated cable. Craft the copper insulated cable with a middle row of copper and top and bottom rows of rubber. Now, to craft the RE battery, place a piece of copper cable top middle, then two redstone below it, and a tin ingot on each side of each redstone. The next thing you need is a generator. It will supply energy to all of your machines, allowing them to function. The generator can be crafted with two recipes that are the same in material cost, but one of them uses 5 iron instead of 5 refined iron, which reduces coal consumption. To craft it with this cheaper recipe, make a second iron furnace, then craft it with three refined iron in the middle row, it in the bottom middle, and the RE battery top middle. To power the generator use coal or charcoal in its bottom slot just like a furnace. To transfer energy from a generator you can place the machine you want to power next to the generator, or use cables to transfer energy Note:you may be tempted to use tin cables to power your machines due to their low energy loss. This is a very bad idea because tin will vaporize and possibly electrocute you if it is ever hooked up to even a generator. Only use tin cables to connect a small number of basic solar panels, water mills, or windmills to a batbox or machines, and never connect tin to other cables that connect with power sources tin cannot handle. '''Macerator The macerator doubles ingot production (of most ores) by producing two dusts per ore block, because each dust can be smelted into an ingot. Dust is only used for an intermediate between ores and ingots, or to craft certain blended metals (which are rarely needed). You make the macerator by making an Electronic Circuit, which is crafted with top and bottom rows of copper insulated cable, a refined iron ingot in the center, and a redstone on each side of it. After that, you should make a Machine block with 8 Refined iron ingots arranged like a furnace's recipe. Craft the macerator with 3 flint in the top row, a machine block in the center, a cobblestone at each side, and one electronic circuit in the bottom middle. You can place the Macerator right next to the generator to power it, or with copper insulated cables connected to both. You now have the basics of efficient ore smelting taken care of. Later, you may want to replace these machines with Pulverizers and Induction Smelters (they slightly more than double production, and double production even for certain ores like aluminum and lead). Category:Tutorials